Woodhouse Jack Image 2 Brighton & Hove Albion 1915

Description

Smethwick, Staffordshire born right half Jack Woodhouse began his football career with Cheddleton Asylum and signed for Southern League club Brighton and Hove Albion in 1912, playing for them both sides of the First World War, featuring regularly in Brighton’s team during 1914-15, and by the time peacetime football was suspended in May 1915 he had scored 9 goals in 52 appearances for The Seagulls. During the War he fought with the 17th (Service) Battalion of the Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment), the so called Footballers’ Battalion, serving as a private.

After the War’s conclusion he returned to Brighton in 1919 and was a near ever present in their 1919-20 campaign which was their last in the Southern League, being  called up to play for the FA XI on the tour of South Africa in 1920. When Brighton joined The Football League he made his League debut in their inaugural Third Division fixture at Southend United in August 1920. Indeed, he was ever present in the season and was the club’s only ever present player. He kept his place until 1923, when he was seemingly injured in the second game of the 1923-24 season and was forced into retirement after 16 goals in 217 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion.